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Katrina Tynan

English Composition 2

Professor Cassel

2 July 2020

What is discrimination and how serious is it?

Society was always told that discrimination is a common thing and that reverse

discrimination is that same thing, but what exactly does discrimination mean? What does

reverse discrimination mean? What does it look like? Discrimination and reverse discrimination

can come in several different forms and the different writers below gives a few examples of the

definitions. They also are great sources that give a few examples on the forms that

discrimination and reverse discrimination come in as well as where they affect citizens of the

United States most.

Discrimination has been going on since white men met someone who was of different

skin color. The United States Government and many others have tried to help decrease the

endurance of it. Things like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other laws that were passed after

the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1976 McDonald vs. Santa Fe Trail Transport Co. decision are just to

name a few (Lerner and Althea). Another thing that has been placed was the Equal Rights

Amendment (ERA), passed in 1972, which was supposed to create “equality of rights under the

law shall be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account” (Roepe).

Although Lisa Roepe touches base on a lot of feminism, she does provide some great arguments

that are beneficial. Roepe’s source talks a lot about the things that go through because of their

sex and that is a form of discrimination. Discrimination can come in all different ways, even the
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ignorance of women’s rights is a form of discrimination. Yiting Nan defines reverse

discrimination as “discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group in favor of

member of a minority or historically disadvantaged group” (Nan, 2017). She also goes and

provides some details on where it can be found, one being college admission

Another key point that is important is how does it affect the way a person goes around

life. In the year 2000, two scientists were interested in the same questions, except they were

more specifically interested in the University of Virginia in Charlottesville’s setting. From there

they both conducted a study in which they collected data and looked into how the impact of race

and reverse discrimination was put into effect when choosing students for admission (Lerner and

Nagai). Not only does this study show what it is and how it can affect lives. They looked deeper

into test scores like Math SAT scores, Reading SAT scores, and class rank and found that the

white majority ultimately did better.

This shows that discrimination and reverse discrimination has been around for quite some

time. Vann R. Newrick II, in the article “How the Myth of Reverse Racism Drives the

Affirmative Action Debate which appeared in the Atlantic in August of 2017, showcases some of

the most common myths that are tied to discrimination and reverse discrimination as well as uses

other news outlets and newspapers that have also touched base on this type of information. One

of those being that many people believe that the black population get admitted into college

because of their race or even get passed up on different opportunities. That ultimately the black

community receives better things based on their skin tone (Newkirk).

All kinds of discrimination have clearly been around for a while. Black, white, orange,

male and female have experienced these strong words. After discovering what these words
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means, it turns out a lot of people experience it. It does seem to look has some things have been

done to relieve it from happening, but it still has not stopped it from completely occurring.
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Works Cited

Lerner, Robert, and Althea K. Nagai. “Reverse Discrimination by the Numbers.” Academic

Questions, vol. 13, no. 3, Summer 2000, p. 71. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12129-000-

1039-3.

Newkirk, Van R. II. "How The Myth of Reverse Racism Drives the Affirmative Action Debate."

The Atlantic 10 Aug. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/08/myth-of-

reverse-racism/535689/. Accessed 27 June 2020.

“Reverse Discrimination.” Findlaw, Thomas Reuters, 6 Dec. 2018,

employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/reverse-discrimination.html.

Accessed 27 June 2020

Roepe, Lisa Rabasca. "The Equal Rights Amendment." CQ Researcher, 3 Apr. 2020, pp. 1-56,

library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2020040300.

Yiting, Nan. Ddirector. Reverse Discrimination. 5 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?

v=zOdTa1zaqFk. Accessed 28 June 2020.